The Main Thing: Efficiency and Effectiveness

2024 has started off the same way as 2023 ended - with continuous news of further rounds of layoffs.

Meta has described 2023 as their year of efficiency and noted that productivity went up as their number of employees went down.

I do believe that scaling in the wrong way is the biggest cause of inefficiencies in how large companies build software - from excessive bureaucracy, sign-offs and meetings to ever-increasing code merges and path to production bottlenecks.

What have you found as the biggest challenges on your projects?  

Rory

This Weeks Updates

Enabling the Team

CEO Expectations: New Product Manager Hires' First 90 Days by Go Practice
Learn what CEOs expect from a new product manager during the first 90 days in B2B and B2C brands.

How to Intervene When You Witness Workplace Aggression by Ivana Vranjes, Zhanna Lyubykh, M. Sandy Hershcovis, and Brianna Barker Caza
Aggression in the workplace reduces psychological safety which is a proven variable for team performance. What should you do when you see it?

Product Direction

Becoming Data Driven, From First Principles by Cedric Chin
Cedric explores the path to becoming data-driven, using principles that shaped Amazon and Toyota, focusing on the transformative power of data in business.

The Duolingo Effect: How Keeping The ‘Streak’ Is Changing People’s Behavior by The Conversation
What is it about streaks that makes them so appealing? Read more to learn about this trend and its motivational impact.

Continuous Discovery

10 User Onboarding Strategies for B2B Startups by Trevor Hatfield
An effective user onboarding process can transform a customer's initial interest into a long-term commitment.

A Spectrum of Perspectives: Design, Product, and Business by Dave Hora
Dave explores the dynamics between design and business perspectives in organisations, pointing out the importance of balancing user needs with revenue growth.

Continuous Design

Pencils Down, Ideas Up: Navigating Design Critiques with Grace and Grit  by Omar Lee
Constructive feedback during a "crit" is one of the most powerful tools that can contribute to a designer's growth.

AI Art is The New Stock Image by Oliver Reichenstein
Oliver gives a brief critique of AI-generated art, pointing out that like all things cheap and easy, they have their drawbacks.

Continuous Delivery

We Removed Advertising Cookies, Here’s What Happened by Matt Henderson
Cookies are changing in 2024. Sentry got ahead of the changes and figured out how to remove all cookies from their site (hint: it wasn't easy).

Forming an Architecture Modernization Enabling Team (AMET) by Eduardo da Silva
Architecture modernisation competes directly with new feature development which makes them hard to prioritise. Eduardo explains how to set them up for success.

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New Video Release This Week

In this week's video, We joined Subhasree, Senior Data Analyst at LexisNexis, to share her experiences and insights from 10 years of storytelling with data, and to delve into the do's and don'ts of telling impactful stories. 👇👇👇

The job of the Week

Senior Digital Automation Engineer
🏬 Verizon
📌 Hybrid, Irving, Texas

About Verizon
Verizon Communications Inc. is a leading American multinational telecommunications conglomerate, based in New York City. It offers a diverse array of services, including cable TV, landline, mobile phone, broadband, digital TV, IPTV, digital media, internet, and telematics.

See role details here

The Results of Last Week’s Poll

The question was: What factors influence your adoption of a new technology:

While last week's poll about PWA's perfectly aligned with the "crossing the chasm" stats, this week when I asked the general question the answers skewed a lot more towards early adopters.

And this is why you ask people for specific behaviour examples in interviews and not general cases :)